be serious

Why should men play this game when there were serious things of life?The general played calmly, and ever the points and edges and fronts of his advance came on, pressing in toward the last row of the board, toward the line where lay the boys of Louisburg.…Cited from The Girl at the Halfway House, by Emerson Hough

A fellow never can get you to be serious for two minutes together."I never was more serious in my life."…Cited from Mr. Scarborough's Family, by Anthony Trollope

You know how hard it is to get people to be serious there.I had the devil's own time at first.…Cited from The King's Jackal, by Richard Harding Davis

Since their market entry in 2008 the company has been growing at amazingly 40 percent (2009-2010), highlighted by the recent establishment of an AS in 2010.This points to the fact that the girls are serious about their business.…

We have only a certain reserve of serious work in us.To attempt to be serious all the time is never to be at rest.This worried busyness, which is a characteristic of the more mediocre of my own countrymen also, is really a symptom of deficient vitality.…Cited from Germany and the Germans, by Price Collier

But it is of great importance, and therefore we must both be serious.Cited from Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories, by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

The question said that it was not a time to be serious.It sprinkled the crest of the barrier with gleaming slivers of glass, which might give zest to words spoken across it, but would be most sharp to the touch.…Cited from Over the Pass, by Frederick Palmer

The men sprang to their feet all together.The enemy were close, and there would be serious work in a minute.A flash and a puff of smoke from the earthworks, a singing in the air, another flash and report close by, and the fragments of a shell were flying about their ears.…Cited from For Fortune and Glory, by Lewis Hough

One heard no joking either of the dapper or cockney sort of cities, or the quaint graphic phrasing of Eastern country folk; and it may have been not far enough West for the true Western humor.At any rate, when they were not silent these men still were serious.The women were apparently serious, too, and where they were associated with the men were, if they were not really subject, strictly abeyant, in the spectator's eye.…Cited from Entire PG Edition of William Dean Howells

Be serious if you want, only don't take so long about it.Cited from The Lion and The Mouse, by Charles Klein

I cannot believe that any boy playing at soldiers would be as idiotic as this.But then any one playing at anything has to be serious.Whereas, as I have only too good reason to know, if you are writing an article you can say anything that comes into your head.…Cited from Tremendous Trifles, by G.K. Chesterton

The posterns are narrow, and forty men at each should be able to keep back a host; and this would leave you a hundred and twenty to hold the main gates.But if we have to man the walls, too, the matter would be serious."If we had time, we might pull down one of the outbuildings and build a thick wall behind the gates; but in an hour they will be attacking us again."…Cited from Saint Bartholomew's Eve, by G. A. Henty

That means, he can be serious and responsible when his friends have a big problem.

You'll be talking about slim milk next!But to be serious, it is a case where one can only hope for the best.There was never a finer young man than Mr. France, and it is a great pity there were no diamonds for him.…Cited from Till the Clock Stops, by John Joy Bell

How do I know you are speaking truth, now you are serious?Cited from The Fortunes of Nigel, by Sir Walter Scott

Things that are serious to him are, I fear, only light to you.Dear Clara, would I could see you more in earnest as to the only matter that is worth our earnestness.' Miss Amedroz said nothing as to the Captain's earnestness, though, perhaps, her ideas as to his ideas about religion were more correct than those held by Mrs Winterfield.…Cited from The Belton Estate, Anthony Trollope

Many of the best and most effective stories are serious in character.One that has been used successfully is this: Some gentlemen from the West were excited and troubled about the commissions or omissions of the administration.…Cited from Talks on Talking, by Grenville Kleiser

They draw better than any cigarette I have ever smoked.Of course, there are women who are serious and all that.There are a lot in the postgraduate department and some in the optional literature courses.…Cited from The Patient Observer, by Simeon Strunsky

There was no getting her, for a moment, even to be serious.All her bright young wit was flashing, like a newly-awakened flame, and all her high young spirits leaped, as if dancing to its fire.…Cited from Lorna Doone, by R. D. Blackmore

I have a weight on my mind; so do be serious, if you can.Cited from Love Me Little, Love Me Long,by Charles Reade